Jesus, the Hiding Healer

Mark 7:24-37

About the Sermon

This passage is utterly perplexing. Jesus travels to a new region but hides. Jesus answers a woman with a derogatory comment. Jesus performs a strange ritual with spit before healing a man. Jesus, again, tells people not to speak of him and they tell everyone. Jesus’ actions and intentions seem to conflict, and both run counter to our own human expectations for him. Yet this counterintuitive text will teach us something important about the cross.

About the Series

Mark began his gospel with the words of the prophets, who told of a day when the Lord would come to his temple, and when he would deliver his people from sin. He also composed his gospel with a deliberate geographical movement from Galilee to Jerusalem. Why did he do that? To show us that the Lord’s path leads to his enthronement on a cross. But there is a second reason: to show us our path. The path of discipleship— the path of those who would follow Jesus—has a cross in it as well. Our fates are bound up with his. Thankfully, this path does not end with suffering, but with resurrection and life. This is a book written about discipleship for disciples like us.
Mark began his gospel with the words of the prophets, who told of a day when the Lord would come to his temple, and when he would deliver his people from sin. He also composed his gospel with a deliberate geographical movement from Galilee to Jerusalem. Why did he do that? To show us that the Lord’s path leads to his enthronement on a cross. But there is a second reason: to show us our path. The path of discipleship— the path of those who would follow Jesus—has a cross in it as well. Our fates are bound up with his. Thankfully, this path does not end with suffering, but with resurrection and life. This is a book written about discipleship for disciples like us.

Sermons in the Series